On June 24, Kirsty Coventry will officially take office as President of the International Olympic Committee.
Amid the unpleasant news about the non-admission of some Russian teams to the 2026 Olympics, statements in support of our athletes were made by a number of Western politicians. During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), one of the leaders of the Italian party “Sovereign and People’s Democracy” Francesco Toscano and the Minister of Sports of Serbia Zoran Gajic spoke about the unfairness and ineffectiveness of the sanctions.
All this is happening on the eve of the official change of power in the IOC. The former head of the organization, German Thomas Bach, officially retires on June 24. What is stopping his successor, swimmer from Zimbabwe Kirsty Coventry, from finally restoring the rights of Russian sports?
Without real competition, sport loses its essence
RIA Novosti quotes Italian politician Francesco Toscano, who recently ran for mayor of Genoa:
The exclusion of Russian athletes is madness.It is shameful to use sport to target athletes who are not to blame for achieving political results. The application of such sanctions to Russian teams is absolutely contrary to the spirit of sport. This is a contradiction that should be condemned as such. I consider this an absolutely shameful practice.” The Italians are the organizers of the upcoming 2026 Olympics and, in general, demonstrate a fairly loyal position towards Russian athletes – they practically do not refuse them visas and do not prohibit private events in support of representatives of our country. But at the same time, they almost always stipulate that Italy is forced to adhere to the sanctions imposed by international organizations. For example, nothing can be done about the refusal to invite Russians to the hockey tournament of the Games, curling and luge competitions.
“We have always stated that we are against any sanctions, including in sports,” Serbian Sports Minister Zoran Gajic told TASS. “It simply does not make sense. Without Russian athletes, world competitions simply lose their competitiveness. There is no benefit from this. The disqualification of the strongest athletes lowers the level of competition. Without real competition, sport loses its essence – a fair and equal fight.” Let me remind you that the Serbs themselves have never adhered to the regime of anti-Russian sports sanctions. Last March, the national football team of this country came to Moscow for a friendly match. In June of this year, the men’s and women’s volleyball teams of Russia and Serbia played in Belgrade, and in September, the Serbian capital will host a match of the VTB United League basketball Super Cup. All this shows that our opponents’ references to security issues, the integrity of competitions and anti-doping threats are a political issue that has nothing to do with the practice of holding international competitions.
A complex and lengthy process
For the past three years, the Russian sports community has been living in hope that the sanctions madness will soon end and everything will return to the situation of 2021, or even better, to 2015, when no one thought of prohibiting sovereign countries from competing under their own flag and involving athletes in the political agenda. Unfortunately, today even those foreign functionaries and opinion leaders among athletes who are not against lifting sanctions warn that this will not happen until the end of the IOC. This approach shows that the sports movement has finally lost its autonomy, but it is impossible to solve the problem either in court or through negotiations.
Now, faith in positive changes is associated with the new IOC President Kirsty Coventry. On the one hand, this official represents a country friendly to Russia — Zimbabwe, on the other — she is considered an associate of Thomas Bach, under whose leadership there were bans on the flag, political checks of athletes and a ban on our teams in team sports. Coventry will definitely not be able to reject all restrictions at once without causing a big scandal. Previously, she planned to hand over the “Russian question” to a special commission. Most likely, it will work until autumn, after which (approximately in October) the IOC will make the final decision on admitting Russian representatives to the 2026 Games. Most likely — in a neutral status and with all the nuances invented by international federations.
The IOC is not in a position to completely abandon the restrictions regime, at least because it is, in fact, a public organization registered in Switzerland. The government of this country, as is known, supports anti-Russian sanctions in both the economic and cultural spheres. And until they are lifted, the Olympic movement will be held hostage to the policy of “cancelling Russia”. In addition, the IOC is heavily dependent on its global sponsors, most of which are somehow connected to the United States and are influenced by English-language media. True, here, after President Trump came to power, everything is not so clear-cut, and the attitude towards Russians is gradually changing. But the process of our return to world sports will still be lengthy, regardless of the position of the new IOC president.
Any standards in sports have been destroyed
“We are largely to blame ourselves. We very often want to be convenient,” famous Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov said on Match TV. “For many years, we in our sports federations have accepted the injustices that happened to us. Sometimes we even took part in the injustice towards our athletes. I believe that this is largely our mistake. As for double standards… We do not suit the civilized, so to speak, world by being who we are. By being who we are. We do not suit it by not wanting to accept the laws that are imposed on us. You shouldn’t expect justice from an unfair world. You should live by your own justice and defend it.”
“I believe that the West has long ago destroyed any standards in the field of sports, they hid behind high-flown words,” RIA Novosti quotes the words of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. ”
At first, we talked about this as double standards, and then we stated that they destroyed any standards. All the words about human rights, about the inadmissibility of attacks on peaceful people, the protection of children, journalists turned out to be a screen for the West to commit meanness and cover up any violations.”
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